Installation

Prebuilt binaries for macOS (arm64/x86_64), Linux (x64/arm64), and Windows (x64) are on the releases page. Ruby is not yet available on Windows (no upstream relocatable builds).

macOS

Homebrew

brew tap boxingoctopuscreative/tap && brew install linguo

The tap’s formula is updated automatically by the release pipeline.

Release tarball (Intel or Apple silicon)

  1. Open GitHub Releases and download the tarball for your Mac:
    • Apple silicon: linguo-<version>-aarch64-apple-darwin.tar.gz
    • Intel: linguo-<version>-x86_64-apple-darwin.tar.gz
  2. Extract the archive and move the linguo binary onto your PATH:
tar xzf linguo-*-apple-darwin.tar.gz
sudo install -m 755 linguo /usr/local/bin/linguo

Linux

Homebrew (Linux)

Homebrew also works on Linux:

brew tap boxingoctopuscreative/tap && brew install linguo

Debian / Ubuntu (.deb)

  1. Download the .deb for your architecture from GitHub Releases:
    • x64: linguo-<version>-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.deb
    • arm64: linguo-<version>-aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu.deb
  2. Install the package:
sudo dpkg -i linguo-*-unknown-linux-gnu.deb

If dpkg reports missing dependencies, run sudo apt-get install -f.

Fedora / RHEL (.rpm)

  1. Download the .rpm for your architecture from GitHub Releases:
    • x64: linguo-<version>-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.rpm
    • arm64: linguo-<version>-aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu.rpm
  2. Install the package:
sudo rpm -i linguo-*-unknown-linux-gnu.rpm

On Fedora, you can also use:

sudo dnf install ./linguo-*-unknown-linux-gnu.rpm

Generic tarball

If your distro is not covered by the .deb or .rpm packages, use the tarball:

  1. Download linguo-<version>-<arch>-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz from GitHub Releases.
  2. Extract and install the binary:
tar xzf linguo-*-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz
sudo install -m 755 linguo /usr/local/bin/linguo

Each release asset has a matching .sha256 file if you want to verify the download before installing.

Windows

MSI installer (recommended)

  1. Download linguo-<version>-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc.msi from GitHub Releases.
  2. Run the installer and follow the prompts. It adds linguo to your PATH.
  3. Open a new terminal and confirm the install:
linguo --version

Zip archive

  1. Download linguo-<version>-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc.zip from GitHub Releases.
  2. Extract the archive to a permanent location, for example C:\Tools\linguo.
  3. Add that folder to your user PATH:
    • Open Settings → System → About → Advanced system settings → Environment Variables
    • Under User variables, edit Path and add the folder containing linguo.exe
  4. Open a new terminal and confirm the install:
linguo --version

Note: Ruby toolchain management is not yet supported on Windows.

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/BoxingOctopusCreative/linguo.git
cd linguo
cargo install --path .

On Windows, install Rust first, then run the same commands from PowerShell or Command Prompt.

Shell hook

Add the shell hook to your rc file so pinned runtimes activate automatically when you cd into a project:

eval "$(linguo activate zsh)"   # or bash / fish

On Windows (PowerShell), add this to your $PROFILE:

linguo activate powershell | Out-String | Invoke-Expression

Auto-install (optional)

By default, the shell hook does not download missing toolchains. You can enable auto-install in your global config:

# ~/.linguo/config.toml
[settings]
auto-install = true

When enabled, cd into a project with unsatisfied pins and Linguo installs the required toolchains on the spot. Failed attempts back off for 5 minutes so an unreachable upstream never stalls your prompt.